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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26364715">Local Dragon Seeking Friend</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anxiety_Elemental/pseuds/Anxiety_Elemental'>Anxiety_Elemental</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Wranduin Week 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Warcraft - All Media Types, World of Warcraft</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Fantasy AU, Humor, M/M, Wranduin Week 2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:33:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,620</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26364715</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anxiety_Elemental/pseuds/Anxiety_Elemental</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The old dragon demanded sacrifice. The new one has other ideas.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lorna Crowley/Tess Greymane, Wrathion/Anduin Wrynn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Wranduin Week 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914814</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>39</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Local Dragon Seeking Friend</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For the prompt arranged marriage.</p>
<p>Special thanks to Raven on the Wranduin Discord for letting me borrow her AU! Hope you like this strange silly thing</p>
<p>Warnings include mild suggestive content and brief description of past violence. Gotta stress "mild"</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anduin lights the braziers five in a circle around the clearing, the forest silent but for the chitter of nighttime animals. He just hopes the dragon will arrive if the fires are lit early, otherwise Tess won’t be spared. She deserves to have her happiness with Lorna, and there was no one left to miss Anduin.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He wishes he had a chance to say goodbye, but he didn’t want her to know he was trying to take her place. He hadn’t said goodbye to anyone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He’s dressed in stolen ceremonial clothes, white embroidered shirt and shorts, a crown of flowers in his long hair. He stands on the stone slab in the middle of the clearing and waits.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A dark shadow swoops overhead, far too large to be a bird, and Anduin shudders. Then the shape swoops down again, lower, this time to land on the grass before him, great wings outstretched, and bright red eyes pinning him in place.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He expected the dragon to be bigger, but quickly tucks the thought away. Anduin braces himself, and recalls the ritual words, “Oh great dragon of the mountain!” he calls, spreading his arms wide, “I offer myself to you as sacrifice, that the kingdom in the forest will be spared your rage!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Is that really necessary?” the dragon asks, instead of eating him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anduin blinks, baffled, dragons could talk? “Is what necessary?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“The speech you just gave,” the dragon says, waving a front paw, “You lit all the braziers to signal me, and you’re standing where the sacrifices go, yes? Why, then, do you have to announce that you are the sacrifice?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anduin blinks, puzzled, “I don’t know, it’s just what you’re supposed to say?” Anduin narrows his eyes, “Wait, you should know that if you’ve been taking our sacrifices.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well,” the dragon the dragon made a strange motion with his wings, almost like a shrug, “I haven’t done this before.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anduin has to take a moment to process what he just heard, “What do you - we’ve been making blood sacrifices to the dragon of the mountain for years! What do you mean you haven’t done this before?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“This is my first time coming to this spot,” the dragon huffed, exhaling a cloud of smoke, “What’s your excuse?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Being a sacrifice isn’t exactly something you do more than once!” Anduin shouts, “It’s not as if all the others come back and tell us how it went!” Anduin groans, great, now he has a headache on top of everything else, “Where is the dragon of the mountain? I’m here to protect my kingdom from him, not entertain you.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Oh, he’s dead,” the dragon says, with an air of smugness, “He was my father, you see, and not a very good one. So I killed him, and now his domain belongs to me.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anduin’s mind raced, “You don’t seem that interested in me, so why don’t we say the sacrifices are done? I’ll tell everyone the dragon of the mountain is dead, and you can go do whatever dragons do.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“But you’re already here, dressed up so pretty, and you made your big speech,” the dragon looms over him, “It would be a shame for all that effort to go to waste!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The dragon lifts off into the air again, and reaches out with his front claws. Anduin recoils and staggers backwards, but too slow to avoid those claws wrapping around his body and pulling him up into the air.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>——</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anduin is dropped onto the floor of a cave, his fall somewhat cushioned by the large number of rugs covering its surface. The dragon trots around him, wings unfurled.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Welcome to my home,” the dragon says, puffing himself up, “And witness my vast and glorious hoard!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anduin sits up, and looks around at the piles of junk. Some of it looks valuable, he sees plenty of gold, but other stuff that looks old, broken, or shiny without any particular value attached to it. He’s not sure what the dragon sees in it. He looks back up at the dragon, impatiently waiting for his response. “What are you planning to do to me? The old dragon just ate people. Someone would always have to clean the altar after.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The dragon’s mouth fell open, an unmistakable look of shock, “How barbaric! Another good reason to kill my father.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anduin can still feel a headache crouched in his forehead. He’d been prepared to die to save his friend, his people. He wasn’t prepared for whatever this was.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“So you’re going to just… keep me here?” Anduin asks, dread in his chest. “As a pet, or something?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The dragon ignores him, instead choosing to look at something in one of the glittering piles around the cave walls.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“…You didn’t think that far ahead,” Anduin states, flatly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The dragon whips his head around and sputters, “Well, I was working on that.” The dragon taps the stone floor with a claw, “I have an idea, I imagine your people would like the sacrifices to stop, yes?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anduin nods, hopeful but wary.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I would like to make a new deal,” the dragon moves to lay down next to Anduin, “See, we dragons are magnificent, beautiful, and cunning, but alas, we are territorial, and so we rarely make social visits. For the next month, you will live here with me and observe my daring adventures and grand displays of power, and you shall write them down. At month’s end, I will return you to your people, where I expect you to share those tales across your kingdom. I might need a new scribe after that, or maybe not. I have not yet decided.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“So what you want is… a bard?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The dragon waves a paw, “I was thinking more bard slash court jester. I was hoping you would also entertain me.” The dragon leans down bringing his head very close to Anduin’s face, “And in exchange, I will not eat you, or more of your people. How’s that sound?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He could survive this, one month of humoring the dragon, and he could go home, and no one else would have to die.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Deal.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Then it’s settled!” the dragon stands, and trots over to a seemingly random side of the cave, and inspects the miscellaneous junk piled here, “I shall have to make you a place to sleep, I have a collection of cloths and rugs I’m sure would make a fine bed.” the dragon looks back at Anduin, and flashes a very toothy smile, “Oh, and you can call me Wrathion, my new scribe.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“My name is Anduin,” Anduin says, as the dragon begins to dig around in his hoard. Wrathion ignores him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anduin takes a deep breath, and puts his face in his hands. He could do this for a month. Just one month then he could go home and there would be no more dragon.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>——</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A month has passed. Tess lights the braziers, five in a circle around the clearing. She stands in the middle of the slab, with Lorna at her side, gun in hand, her face a stoic mask. They’d tried to gather a militia before leaving, but no one thought it was possible to slay the dragon. They don’t talk, they’ve made their peace.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Before long, a dark shape swoops overhead, far too large to be a bird. Tess is ready.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Wicked dragon of the mountain!” Tess calls, holding her knives aloft, “You have have claimed enough blood from our people! You have taken the lives of our brothers and sisters, and the life of my friend! Your reign of terror ends tonight!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Look, she had a speech too!” the dragon calls as he lands in front of her, “Hers was different from yours, my dear.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>At this new angle Tess can now see a pale shape sitting on the dragon’s back. One she recognizes.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Anduin?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anduin sits up, “Tess! What are you doing here?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Avenging you!” Tess is rooted in place, her mind playing catch-up with reality, “How are you not dead?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anduin, to her amazement and shock, blushes.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“A lot has happened in a month,” he begins, trying to regain his composure, “It turns out the old dragon is dead, and this new one doesn’t want to eat people. We can go home and tell everyone the sacrifices are done.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tess looks from Anduin, to the dragon he’s sitting on, as if it were as normal as riding a horse, and back, “Anduin, what did you do?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Me,” said the dragon, his grin full of fangs.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Wrathion!” Anduin shouts, just as Tess screams, “Anduin!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tess is barely aware of Lorna leaning over to whisper, “I could still shoot him.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Not yet,” Tess replies, as Anduin slips off the Wrathion’s back, “But keep hold of your gun.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Look, it’s a long story,” Anduin begins as he approaches the pair, “We can explain on the way back home.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“We’re not bringing the dragon to our home,” Lorna states, firmly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Wrathion disappears in a sudden puff of smoke and embers, only for a strange young man to walk out of the cloud.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Nonsense! I was promised a tour!” the now human Wrathion says, and holds out a hand toward Anduin, “I wanted to see this kingdom in the forest I’ve heard so much about!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As Anduin takes Wrathion’s hand, Tess sees the dragon’s face soften in a way she didn’t expect.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“It’s okay,” Anduin said, quietly, “I promise.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tess looks between the two, frowning, “Let’s go home,” she says, “But if I think he’s hurt you or manipulated you, I’ll still stab him.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Oh, I like her,” Wrathion says, grinning.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They walk back through the forest, Anduin telling the story of how he tamed the lonely dragon.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The art in this fic was made by Raven! Go check it out <a href="https://twitter.com/LenaGantner4/status/1303371941135351809">Here!</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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